A good chair

As I've said before, design is everywhere. It is a rare item around us that didn't have the involvement of a designer at one point or another. I find myself thinking of the poor designer slaving away at some of these things....often doing it so well, you and I don't even notice it on our day to day activities. Good design just naturally fits...it doesn't call attention to itself. It just DOES.

My mother recently suggested I should get a good chair. The one I got now is a leather office chair I got for under $100 down at OfficeMax. It has a high back which allows me to lean back pretty comfortably, and it's relatively comfortable aside from the fact it's a bit hot on a humid day. Its got none of the ergo enhancements...the armrests are rigid, the lumbar support is pretty weak, and while sitting straight upright for computer work, the backrest does not reach my back at all.

The more I thought about my mother's suggestion, the more I thought she was right. Here I am spending most of my day sitting on this one piece of furniture in my house, why do I choose to suffer from back & neck pain because of this chair?

Well...... HELLO? Most ergo chairs start between $500 - $800. OUCH! For just an office chair? "Well, you sit on that all the time!" I hear my mom saying. So I go about doing some online research.....

There are apparently a handful of really good office chairs out these days that have been engineered to do everything short of giving you a pat on the back for good work.

There's the standard that was set 12 years ago by the chair known as the Aeron. Yeah, you KNOW you're paying big bucks for a piece of furniture if it has its own name. It might be fun to have a house full of named furniture wouldn't it? Imagine inviting guests over to your house, "Welcome! Why don't you make yourself comfortable over here with Aeron. Or if you want to relax, please lie down on Samantha over here and put your feet up on Paco."

However, apparently I'm old school. The Aeron isn't considered all that great anymore being 12 year old technology. A couple of other, not-so-well-named, chairs have lately been considered the pinnacle of a good office chair.

One choice is this chair called the Humanscale Liberty. OK, that chair should be downgraded a couple points for the dumb name. Ordering the options for this chair is like building yourself an exotic car.

Another promising option is the Steelcase Leap. This one looks like it's way more adjustable then the HumanScale Liberty.

Can I really afford putting so much money into a chair? /sigh. I might go sit my ass on these things to see if they're really worth that amount of money. If it saves my back and neck I suppose it might be worth it.

Certainly if I get one of these chairs I'm naming it right away.